Novotel Peace Bejing Beijing

We arrived in Beijing last night around 6:30. After we got off the plane, which was a relief to say the least, we went to baggage claim (My bag made it!) and met our tour guide for our days in Beijing. We checked into our hotel, I made a phone call home, and was soon sleeping. The hotel is really nice, the beds are really comfortable and the hair dryer has to be one of the weirdest things I've ever seen, it looks a lot more like a vacuum cleaner than anything else. Christie and I were out pre...

y we started our morning by visiting a Jade factory in Beijing. We learned all about the process of carving Jade, which by the way was incredible, the detail that goes into each carved piece, and also learned about how jade is chosen, what makes it unique and tips on buying jade. After getting our tour through the factory, we were able to shop for about 30 minutes. I got two pairs of beautiful black jade earrings, a ball of happiness, and a ring. We got a student discount, which everyone used...

I am currently on my flight from Beijing to Xian. Today was another very busy day in Beijing, and I am really sad to leave the city. This morning we woke up and went straight to Beijing International Studies University. It is one of the more prestigious Universities, and it specializes in Tourism and languages. We got a tour of the campus by a student representative, and then we all gathered in a big lecture hall, where a few representatives from the BISU faculty told us about the university ...

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Soon thereafter, I was on to Beijing, China's capital. It was much more noticeably 'communist' and noticeably cold -13 degrees cold. The day I arrived I walked to Tian'anmen Square and decided to visit the Mao memorial. After depositing all your belongings in a building across from the square, you follow back to the memorial where a bunch of chinese militia yell at you over a megaphone. Of course, i don't have any clue what they're saying. I look around me -- everyone's chinese, they will und...

Hey everyone - we are safe and sound! Thanks for all the e-mails! We just missed the terrible Chengdu earthquake. I'm really writing this from Orlando (we just got back about an two hours ago!). The Internet situtation in Beijing wasn't very good so I couldn't post while I was there and we were super busy trying to see everything. We did make it to most of the highlights and I'll update again soon with pictures. Our guess is we were flying somewhere over Siberia when it the quake hit (no joke...

Entry containing 6 photos titled: Introduction, Huanhuan, BC-Canada Pavilion, Dashan, Symposium Participants, Yongjian Zhai, Arius 3D

It's 1:52 pm Friday (we're 13 hrs ahead).   Temperature is about 80 degrees, humid and drizzling.  Can't tell if its the smog, or fog, or what but it's quite cloudy out.

 Well we experienced Beijing the only way girls know how - SHOPPING!   two blocks from our hotel is the largest shopping mall in the City.  6 floors in total - 1,000 stores.  Hard to shop when you have to try and convert everything to US dollars.   The brain hurts.  Good news though - McDonald's had pictures so we coul...

WOW - Orientation day is spectacular - after listening to our Holt Reps explain the process, culture, etc. we finally got our Books.   Our Red silk book contained new Pictures of Qian Xiu Fan (Emma) and all updated information we've been desparately waiting for.   She's about 19 lbs and 32 inches tall (she looks long and skinny) and on one of the pictures she's riding one of her favorite toys - the rocking horse which is similar to the worm we have at home for her!    She is still on baby/ric...

We're off to the Airport at 6 am to go meet Emma for the first time.   Neither Dave nor I have slept much - he was up at 2 am, I managed to sleep until almost 4.   For the first time Kenzie actually slept the entire night until we had to wake her up at 5:30 am.   We were fortunate enough to meet with a former Pastor from Oconomowoc and his 3 kids who has been here for a year with his family teaching English to Chinese students and doing Mission work.   We took him to the worlds famous McDonal...